Aena and institutions pass the buck over saturation while Son Sant Joan approaches 15 million passengers

PalmaWhile Aena and the island and regional governments pass the buck over who is responsible for the saturation, the saturation does not stop increasing. In the first six months of 2026, Mallorca's main airport has once again pulverized all its records and is already close to 15 million passengers (14.9), which represents 14% more than just three years ago, compared to the first semester of 2023.

Specifically, Son Sant Joan has gained 1.83 million passengers in three years, going from 13.1 million travelers in the first half of 2023 to the current 14.9 million. The increase is also 4.5% compared to the same period in 2024 and 2.2% in relation to just one year ago, during the first half of 2025.

The figure arrives at a time when the debate on tourist saturation and growth limits is once again at the center of the political agenda of the Islands. While institutions insist on the need to contain tourist pressure on the territory, and even the Government of Marga Prohens admits with fewer and fewer nuances the clear saturation that the Islands are suffering, reality advances and breaks records month after month.

Air traffic data show that the volume of passengers continues to increase and that the trend is not stopping its growth. In fact, Palma airport has not only recovered pre-covid pandemic levels but has also widely surpassed them. If the first half of 2026 is compared with the same period in 2019, before the pandemic, Son Sant Joan has accumulated 2.3 million more passengers, an increase of 18.4%.

The evolution of recent years shows a constant upward trend. Between 2023 and 2024, the airport added almost 1.2 million passengers (+9.1%), and subsequently maintained more moderate, but continuous, growth with increases of over 300,000 passengers annually.

Ibiza and Menorca also maintain activity

Growth is not exclusive to Mallorca. Ibiza Airport also maintains positive evolution and during the first semester of 2026 it approaches 3.8 million passengers, a situation for which it consolidates the maximums achieved in recent years. The year 2025 closed with more than 9 million passengers, a historic record for the Pitiusa infrastructure.

Menorca consolidates its traffic volume after the post-pandemic recovery. The Menorcan airport closed 2025 with more than 4.2 million passengers, a figure that confirms the strength of the island's air connectivity.

Overall, the three Balearic airports have exceeded 20 million passengers during the first six months of 2026, a figure that reinforces the weight of air transport within the tourism model of the Islands.

The contradiction between the data and the discourse of limits

The increase in air traffic coincides with a moment of intense debate about whether the Balearic Islands have reached their growth limit. The President of the Government, Marga Prohens, has on several occasions defended the need to curb mass tourism and has pointed out that the Islands have reached a point where activity needs to be better managed.

Along these lines, the Minister of Tourism, Jaume Bauzà, has defended that the Government's objective is not to increase the number of visitors, but neither is it to reduce it: "our proposal is not to grow, but neither is it to shrink." The data confirm that airport activity is increasing.

The reality of the airports, therefore, shows another side of the debate: while the political discourse refers to containment and the commitment to a higher quality tourism model, the main entry point for visitors to the Islands continues to register new and sustained increases in passengers.